?? You think clearly worded questions lead to better answers? Our latest research says: not always. ?
We're thrilled to share that our article
"Right Answers to Wrong Questions: The Dysfunctional Nature of Information Needs"
by Melanie A. Kilian and David Elsweiler, in collaboration with Ian Ruthven (externer Link, ?ffnet neues Fenster) (University of Strathclyde)
has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) (externer Link, ?ffnet neues Fenster) — a Q1 journal with an acceptance rate of just 8% (2024)! ??
? Key finding:
Even "good" questions can lead us astray: Clearly phrased and seemingly reasonable information requests can mask misconceptions seekers have about the actual information needs. And if these misconceptions go unnoticed, the questions lead to useless answers and task failure. Our study introduces this phenomenon and reveals how such hidden misconceptions challenge the effectiveness of current query-repair strategies.
? Why this matters:
While vague or ambiguous queries have been studied extensively, our findings show that requests that sound clear can also present an unreliable and even counterproductive basis for task support.
?Big picture:
This challenges the dominant focus on user requests in information systems design.
? Beyond queries in information retrieval (IR):
Ideas about moving beyond request-based IR are not new — see, for example, Chirag Shah and his colleagues’ (2023) call for proactive search systems that encourage task descriptions over queries. ? Our study empirically substantiates the need for such approaches.
? Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.70010 (externer Link, ?ffnet neues Fenster)
#Problematic #InformationNeeds
#Misconceptions in #InformationSeeking
#InformationSeekingProblems
#TaskBasedIR #TaskSupport
#IR #InformationRetrieval
#ProactiveIR #SearchSystems
#EmpiricalStudy #InterviewStudy
#QualitativeResearch #PhDResearch
#JASIST #JournalOfTheAssociationForInformationScienceAndTechnology
#ResearchSuccess #ResearchPaperAccepted
#InformationScienceRegensburg #StayInformed
#AcademicLinkedIn
Reference:
Chirag Shah, Ryen White, Paul Thomas, Bhaskar Mitra, Shawon Sarkar & Nicholas Belkin (2023). Taking search to task. CHIIR 2023, https://doi.org/10.1145/3576840.3578288 (externer Link, ?ffnet neues Fenster)
